U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema has ordered the Loudoun County (Va.) Library board to pay plaintiffs and their attorneys $106,918 in expenses they incurred for successfully challenging LCL’s use of Internet filters on every public terminal. The April 1 ruling specifies that $69,881 goes to Mainstream Loudoun, the grassroots organization that first brought suit in December 1997, and $37,037 to the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the suit in April 1998.
Brinkema asserted in a 17-page judgment that she awarded considerably less than the $330,710.37 requested by Mainstream Loudoun and the $187,289.63 asked by the ACLU in hopes the library could sidestep a “budgetary nightmare,” Leesburg Today reported April 2. Library board Chair John J. Czaplewski told the paper that he was “somewhat relieved” that the judgment was similar to the amount the board incurred in its defense.
Trustees, who reserved the right to appeal the case, are expected to decide April 19 whether to go back to court.
Posted April 12, 1999.